Ear-trumpet.



0. H. SHEPPARD.

EAR TRUMPBT.

APPLIOATIoN FILED JUNE 14, 1913.

1,079,670, Patented Nov. 25, 1913.

COLUMBIA PLANQGRAPH co.,wASmNGroN. D,c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OSBCRNE H. SHEPPARD, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 W. N. SHARP, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

EAR-TRUMPET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented NOV. 25,1913.

Application led .Tune 14. 1913. Serial N o. 773,749.

T 0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, OsBoRNE H. SHEP- PARDa citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Ear-Trumpets, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in ear-trumpets, which I have devised, more immediately,4 for use in the kind of such devices known in the trade as conversational tubes, in which a flexible tube has connected with one end a flaring or bell-shaped mouthpiece, and with its opposite end a rigid curved ytube-section to be inserted into the ear of the user, while the voice of the person talking is directed into the mouth-piece. In an ear-trumpet of this conversationaltube variety, particularly, the Voice, in carrying through it, produces a roaring sound, which is not only disagreeable to the listener, but muffles, more or less, the sound of the voice, thus impairing its desirable distinctness; and the object of my invention is to correct this defect.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a view in elevation of an ear-trumpet provided with my improvement; Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the same, looking into the mouth-piece, and Fig. 3 is a section on line 3, Fig. 2.

The mouth-piece 4, -of general funnelshape, has its shouldered stem connected with one end of a fiexible tube 5, into the opposite end of which is inserted a stiff tube 6, curved for convenience in inserting it into the ear; all as is common in devices of the present kind.

My invention consists in an outwardlybulging button-like plate 7, of the preferred concavo-convex disk shape illustrated, interposed in the mouth-piece and rigidly fastened to diametrically-opposite points therein, at ears 8 projecting from the plate, by soldering, if the parts be formed of metal, as are those in the sample illustrated in the drawing. The edge of the plate 7 between the opposite ears is thus spaced from the inner wall surface of the mouth-piece; and in talking into the latter the sound of the voice, directed against the convex surface of the plate, is diffused over the plate through the space and transmitted through the fiexible tube to the listeners ear. The effects of the interposed plate 7 are, though I am unable to state the reason therefor, to entirely prevent roaring sound in the use of the device, and to enhance the clearness, at the receiving end, of the sound transmitted at the mouth-piece. It will be observed however that by reason of the rounded or convex surface of the plate 7 and the inclined inner wall of the mouth-piece 4, the sound waves entering the trumpet are caused to travel over the inclined surfaces in a substantially straight path, thus avoiding all sharp edges or corners calculated to break up such sound waves, and thereby diminish the efficiency of a device of this character.

Vhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,-

In an ear-trumpet, the combination with a flexible tube provided at one of its ends with an inflexible tubular section adapted for insertion in the ear, and at its opposite end with a mouth-piece having a reduced tubular inner end adapted to be inserted in said fiexible tube and an outer end outwardly flaring therefrom, of a concavo-convex disk located entirely within said flaring mouth-piece approximately centrally thereof and spaced about its edge from the flared wall surface of such mouth-piece, the said disk being located sufficiently far from the mouth of the mouth-piece so that all the sound waves that strike said disk will be deflected against the inner wall of the mouthpiece and diused over rounded surfaces into the flexible tube, for the purpose set forth.

CSBORNE H. SHEPPARD.

In the presence of- A. J. FLOYD, O. C. AvIsUs.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

. Washington, D. C. 

